"This concert spans a long
period starting with a big, robust romantic piece from Brahms," said
Douglas McRay Daniels, conductor and music director of the FRSO.Daniels said he first became familiar with Still's Afro-American
Symphony at the University of Nebraska when the orchestra performed it
while he was in graduate school there. "It's a monumental piece, it's
the first symphony by an African-American composer to be performed
nationally. He wrote it in 1930," said Daniels. "William Grant Still was
a fantastic composer."

Daniels said Still incorporated verses
from poet Paul Laurence Dunbar's poems as epigraphs to his symphony into
which he integrated 12-bar blues chords. "He uses a lot of spirituals,
gospel and jazz," added Daniels.

Stills' symphony also features unexpected instruments including the banjo and contrabassoon. "The orchestra's killing it — most of the people in the Fall River Symphony Orchestra have never heard it before," said Daniels.

The timing of performing Stills' symphony, during Black American History Month, was unintentional, though as an African-American conductor, Daniels said he feels an obligation to represent composers "who look like me."

Additionally, Daniels said one of his goals is always to make the orchestra go to places musically that they've never been before. "They love it and they're very excited about it," he said.